Parashat Noah- Raising Children, Raising Oneself
Parashat Noah begins, "These are the offspring of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked in [the ways of] God. Noah begot three sons – Shem, Ham and Yefet."
Many commentators noted that although the Parasha begins with the introduction, "These are the offspring of Noah," it does not discuss Noah’s children until the next verse. The first verse proceeds to describe Noah himself – "Noah was a righteous man" – rather than identifying his children. The obvious question arises, why does the Torah interrupt with a description of Noah himself before discussing his children? Once the Torah begins, "These are the offspring of Noah," shouldn’t it immediately proceed to list his children, rather than first presenting an assessment of Noah himself?
One Rabbi explained that in truth, a person has two kinds of offspring: his biological children, and himself. We are obliged to not only beget and raise children, but also to create and raise ourselves, to build and develop ourselves to our fullest potential. Many people mistakenly think upon reaching adulthood that they have completed the process of self-growth, and now they must direct their time and energy exclusively toward raising their children. This is incorrect. The process of raising oneself never ends; we must continue raising ourselves even while we raise our children.
With this insight in mind, we can easily understand the first verses of our Parasha. The Torah introduces "the offspring of Noah," and proceeds to mention the first, and more important, offspring which Noah produced: "Noah was a righteous man." He produced himself, turning himself into a righteous man who followed God’s will. The Torah then moves onto Noah’s other offspring, his children.
The story is told of Rav Yitzchak Hutner (1906-1980), the late Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Chaim Berlin, who once encouraged an accomplished Torah scholar to begin studying Kabbala, the mystical areas of Torah. The scholar questioned the idea, noting that investing time and energy in Kabbala would diminish from his ability to tend to his students and their growth in the study of Talmud and Halacha.
Rav Hutner replied with a profound insight: "When a mother eats well, her children benefit." Meaning, if a Rabbi exerts time and effort growing and expanding his knowledge, this is to his students’ benefit, as well, just as a healthy, well-fed mother is in a better position to tend to her children than a frail, sickly mother.
Both for ourselves and for our children, we must continue learning and growing even in our adult years. Our "offspring" includes not only our children, but also the people we ourselves become – and the greater we become, the better chance we have of educating and influencing our children to becoming the people we want them to be.
